Monday, November 12, 2012

Old West glossary, no. 49

Cowboys, Montana c1910

Here’s another set of terms and forgotten people gleaned
from early western fiction. Definitions were discovered in various online
dictionaries, as well as searches in Cassell’s Dictionary of Slang,
Dictionary of the American West, The New Encyclopedia of the American West, The
Cowboy Dictionary, The Cowboy Encyclopedia, Vocabulario Vaquero, I Hear America
Talking, Cowboy Lingo, and The
Shorter Oxford English Dictionary.

These are from Edgar Beecher Bronson’s The Red-Blooded, about brave men of the frontier, Pauline Wilson
Worth’s mining camp stories, Death Valley Slim and Other Stories, and Martin Allerdale Grainger’s Woodsmen
of the West, about loggers in British
Columbia. Once again, I struck out on a few. If anyone has a definition for
“bay steer,” “Fanny Brook,” or “on the bust,” leave a comment below.

Log boom, Idaho, 1973

bald-headed =acting suddenly or without careful
consideration. “He went at every problem by the light of nature—‘bald-headed,’
as the saying is—in furious attack.” Martin Allerdale Grainger, Woodsmen of
the West.

boom stick =one of the logs fastened together to make
a boom to hold floating logs. “Oh, the back-breaking job of boring boom-sticks
when your auger keeps biting into stubborn knots!” Martin Allerdale Grainger, Woodsmen
of the West.

Bucker and spruce log, 1918

bucker =a logging worker who saws logs into lengths. “The
‘buckers’ had then wormed their way among that giant heap of trunks and limbs
and matted boughs, and sawn the good timber into lengths.” Martin Allerdale
Grainger, Woodsmen of the West.

coal trimmer = a
position in the engineering department of a coal-fired ship which involves all
coal handling tasks, from loading coal into the ship to delivery of coal to the
stoker. “The oarsman was my old acquaintance Jim; Jim the ‘engineer’; Jim,
ex-coal-trimmer from the White Star Line.” Martin Allerdale Grainger, Woodsmen
of the West.

devil club =a large shrub native to the cool, moist
forests of western North America, noted for its large palmate leaves and erect,
woody stems covered in brittle spines. “The woods, for walking in, are
‘something fierce,’ as persons say—underbrush and fallen logs, rocks and
crevices, to hinder one; and needles of the devil-clubs to fray one’s temper.”
Martin Allerdale Grainger, Woodsmen of the West.

dog =a short, heavy piece of steel, bent and pointed at
one end to form a hook and with an eye or ring at the other, used for many
purposes in logging. “A sharp, heavy logging ‘dog,’ had lost grip of a moving
log under the strain of hauling, and flicking round had ripped a great wound
down Fitz’s leg.” Martin Allerdale Grainger, Woodsmen of the West.

The Duchess, 1906

Duchess, The =Margaret Wolfe Hungerford (1855-1897), an
Irish novelist whose light romantic fiction was popular throughout the
English-speaking world in the 19th century. “It’s kind of tiresome sometimes in
winter; lying on your bunk reading magazines or them dime novels by the Duchess
and Mary Corelli.” Martin Allerdale Grainger, Woodsmen of the West.

Duke’s Mixture =a brand of smoking tobacco originated by
Washington Duke in the 1860s, believed to be made of tobacco odds and ends; thus “duke’s mixture” came to refer to any hodge-podge of things. “Now a few yar ago
nothin’ but Duke’s Mixture would do for me, but now I won’t smoke nothin’ but
Bull Durham.” Pauline Wilson Worth, Death Valley Slim and Other Stories.

Fallers

faller =a logging worker who fells the trees. “The ‘fallers’
had worked along the slope, slope that was almost cliff; and all the trees of
value had been felled criss-cross, upon each other and upon the mass of smaller
trees their fall had shattered.” Martin Allerdale Grainger, Woodsmen of the
West.

frieze =a heavy durable coarse woolen with a rough surface.
“Then there are oilskins and blankets and rough suits of frieze for winter
wear, and woolen mitts.” Martin Allerdale Grainger, Woodsmen of the West.

go the pace =to proceed with reckless vigor; to indulge
in dissipation. “Often they are men with less power of grasping matters of
simple finance and arithmetic than the reckless undergraduate, absorbed in
‘going the pace’.” Martin Allerdale Grainger, Woodsmen of the West.

hand logger =a logger felling and moving timber by
hand. “And the idea came to me suddenly to go and visit Kendall—that solitary
hand-logger who never came near Carter’s camp.” Martin Allerdale Grainger, Woodsmen
of the West.

hang out a boom =extend a chain of logs across a bay to
hold felled timber. “They saw a boom or two hung out in little bays that opened
from the channels.” Martin Allerdale Grainger, Woodsmen of the West.

jawbone =credit. “Jawbone is the western word for credit. I
lack the art of using mine persuasively.” Martin Allerdale Grainger, Woodsmen
of the West.

Leckie =a work boot manufactured by the J. Leckie Company in
Vancouver in the late 1800’s. “Leckie calls attention to his logging boot,
whose bristling spikes are guaranteed to stay in.” Martin Allerdale Grainger, Woodsmen
of the West.

mushroom town =a boomtown that springs up overnight. “He
quit railroading, collected his savings, and started a hotel in one of the
mushroom ‘towns’ with which the very rumour of a boom will spot a country.”
Martin Allerdale Grainger, Woodsmen of the West.

Old Taylor =a bourbon whiskey produced in Frankfort,
Kentucky, and named in honor of Edmund Haynes Taylor, Jr. (1830-1923). “There’s
a bottle of ‘Old Taylor’ in the other room; you’d better take a drop.” Pauline
Wilson Worth, Death Valley Slim and Other Stories.

rigging slinger =a logging worker who chains a log and
attaches it to a towline. “Skilled artists—hook-tenders, rigging slingers,
engineers—hated to work for a man who had never learned the ABC of classical
methods.” Martin Allerdale Grainger, Woodsmen of the West.

shantyman =a logger. “He goes poundin’ through the
bush like a bunch o’ shantymen to their choppin’.” Edgar Beecher Bronson, The
Red-Blooded.

pointer =a boat developed in Canada in the 19th century for
use in the logging industry. “We had to’ help them into a thirty-foot ‘pointer’
made t’ carry a crew o’ eight shanty-men ’n’ their supplies on the spring
drives.” Edgar Beecher Bronson, The Red-Blooded.

skookum box =a place onboard ship for confining
troublesome passengers. “There too is the skookum box—that is, the strong room
or lock-up. To it the first mate of the Cassiar is wont to shoot too noisy
drunks.” Martin Allerdale Grainger, Woodsmen of the West.

slack water =a cessation in the strong flow of a
current or tide. “Just beyond Church House we lay at anchor for an hour or two,
waiting for slack water in the Euclataws.” Martin Allerdale Grainger, Woodsmen
of the West.

soogey-moogey =a mixture of lye, soap, and water used to
clean paintwork and woodwork on a ship or boat; a never ending job. “Work such
as that is a more buoyant affair than the deadly treadmill work that goes on,
soogey-moogey, day in and day out, for forty-nine perfunctory weeks of the
year.” Martin Allerdale Grainger, Woodsmen of the West.

stumper =a tree that will drop straight into water when
felled. “For ‘stumpers’ are the most profitable trees that hand-loggers can
hope to get; they need so little time and work.” Martin Allerdale Grainger, Woodsmen
of the West.

swamper =a logging worker who chops limbs and brush from
felled trees. “We came to where the ‘swampers’ were at work chopping limbs and
brush, preparing the cut logs for hauling.” Martin Allerdale Grainger, Woodsmen
of the West.

timber cruiser =a person who examines a stand of timber to
determine its potential value. “Hundreds and hundreds of men—experienced
loggers, inexperienced youths from town—blossomed as ‘timber-cruisers’.” Martin
Allerdale Grainger, Woodsmen of the West.

Packsack with tumpline

tumpline =a sling formed by a strap
slung over the forehead or chest and used for carrying or helping to support a
pack on the back or in hauling loads. “I’d jest tump-line th’ whole bunch
o’ youse ’t one load from th’ landin’ ’t’ th’ Bertrand farm if that feller
wa’n’t settin’ with his back t’ th’ stump, facin’ up th’ runway, his rifle
’tween his knees ’n’ his fool head lopped over on one shoulder, dead asleep!” Edgar Beecher Bronson, The Red-Blooded.

up a stump =perplexed, in difficulties. “I felt
considerable up the stump and so I told Death as how the young man was too
proud to accept money straight out.” Pauline Wilson Worth, Death Valley Slim
and Other Stories.